Waze Partners With Waycare For Two-Way Data Sharing

Navigation app Waze and Waycare,  an artificial intelligence-based traffic management startup, have announced a partnership that will allow them to share road and traffic data.

Cities will be able to communicate with drivers to warn them about dangerous roads, hazards and incidents ahead. The partnership is currently active in Nevada, Florida, California and Nevada, with plans to expand over the next year.

The data sharing is part of Waze’s Connected Citizens Program (CCP), which gives cities around the world access to anonymized driver data to help them manage traffic and road infrastructure. The system analyzes and combines the data using proprietary deep learning technologies.

“Today’s announcement showcases how driver communities can benefit from interacting with municipal traffic organizations, who hold vital traffic information,” explains Noam Maital, CEO of Waycare. “Our partnership with Waze will further enable municipalities using Waycare’s traffic management platform to unlock critical operational insights to improve traffic flow and traffic safety.”

Waycare’s cloud-based solution was created to assist various public agencies, such as Traffic Operations, Traffic Engineering, Law Enforcement, Emergency Services and Freeway Service Patrol. Currently, CCP has 600 partners globally.

“Cities everywhere are undergoing a massive transportation revolution, and Waze is thrilled to be at the forefront of this movement with our Connected Citizens Program,” said Adam Fried, Waze’s global partnerships manager. “We’re excited to partner with Waycare to empower even more municipalities with powerful data insights that will help them make informed planning decisions and improve existing city infrastructure.”

This is just the latest offering from Waze, which is owned by Google. Last year, the company announced a new hands-free capability, Talk to Waze, that promises to work just like Google Assistant. The capability is part of a suite of new features that are included in what Waze calls “one of its biggest updates ever.”